Preservice Teachers’ “Revelations and Connections”: Fostering Deep Conversations While Reading Multicultural Literature

We investigated strategies that a literacy teacher educator used to develop preservice teachers’ culturally responsive pedagogy. This study focused on (a) implementation of literature circles, (b) preservice teachers’ (n= 29) reading and analysis of multicultural children’s literature, (c) preservice teachers’ reader response reflective journals (RRRJ), and (d) reading comprehension strategies. We analyzed interviews with the professor and RRRJ (87 responses) as well as the course syllabus, reader response guidelines, and course evaluations to understand the lived experiences of the participants. We found preservice teachers recognize the benefits of literature circles and the utilization of RRRJ to develop an understanding of reading comprehension strategies and ways to talk about culture.